Tag Archives: Vancouver

Disaster, Indigenous Nations

Frantic escapes, damaged homes and lost time: First Nations hit hardest when wildfire season comes

Editor’s note: An alarming trend that needs to be addressed.

By Matteo Cimellaro, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Debbie Rupke (Tomma) heard a rattle at her door. It was her cousin in a panic, telling her they had only minutes to leave. Strong winds had shifted, and the Bushcreek fire, which has burned at least 43,084 hectares north of Kelowna so far, was bearing down on their homes. Rupke (Tomma) had returned from Vancouver the day before, so she grabbed her yet-to-be-unpacked suitcase and her most precious memento: a family portrait of her daughter she gave up for adoption at 15.

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Food, Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Paul Muskee on Klahoose Aquaculture & QXMC

Paul Muskee has been working for QXMC for close to 15 years and for the last decade has been with Klahoose Aquaculture.

“I feel like my life has led me this way. When I was younger, I did work in aquaculture and I did work in forestry. I was also a mining technologist for a bunch of years, but I grew up  around Powell River, Lund and Desolation Sound.  Running boats has always been part of what I’ve done. I’ve loved working for Klahoose. They’ve been a great employer and I really like the people I’ve work with,” he explained.  

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Arts

Ann Mortifee part 2: A 3 year pilgrimage & return

(The second in a series of interviews with Ann Mortifee, click here to access part one.) 

Ann Mortifee seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough few artists even dream of, when she left the music industry in 1975. EMI Records had just produced her second album and set up a world tour. 

Yet Ann’s inner voice clearly stated, “if you go down this path, you will not fulfill your destiny.”

She resisted at first, but finally told her music director, “I’m leaving music, and I’m going on a pilgrimage.”

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Housing

A remote Canadian island makes history in fight for affordable housing

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A remote Canadian island is breaking ground on a new way to buffer the negative effects short-term vacation rentals have on the housing crisis facing small, rural tourism-based communities. 

B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have all the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director. 

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Arts

Ann Mortifee: ‘Dreaming I am Ann’

(The first of a series of interviews with Ann Mortifee) 

Ann Mortifee is probably the most famous musician on Cortes Island, which is more of a compliment than it sounds like because there are a lot of talented musicians on Cortes. However from the start of our interview, it was apparent this story was about a lot more than singing. I had this bizarre feeling to lead with the question, ‘When did you start becoming Ann Mortifee?’ 

Her answer came out of the memories of a 4-years-old girl.

AM:  “It happened maybe a hundred times in my childhood. I had the same dream. I’d be standing somewhere looking into a bedroom and there’d be someone lying in the bed. I’d go, ‘Oh no, I’m starting to dream of her again.’ Then I would get this anxious feeling, ‘I’m going to get stuck there in the dream and I’m going to believe it’s real.’ This dream gets more and more upsetting to me. I can feel myself starting to fall asleep and that I’m in a dream.” 

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